1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscope apparatus having a light emitting diode (LED) for illumination, etc., at the tip end of an insertion part inserted into a lumen, for an industrial use or a medical use, etc.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-032490, filed Feb. 9, 2004, and Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-032491, filed Feb. 9, 2004, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
In general, an endoscope apparatus currently used industrially or medically is equipped with a long insertion part which is inserted into a lumen. Moreover, in such an endoscope apparatus, in order to illuminate the target for observation in a lumen and to make observation and image pick-up easy, there is an illumination device at the tip end of the insertion part.
In recent years, an illumination device having a light emitting diode (which is referred as “LED”, hereinafter) is proposed. Moreover, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application First publication No. Hei 10-216085, an endoscope having a plurality of adapters, each of which is detachably attached to the tip end of the insertion part, and is equipped with an LED illumination device and a separate optical system, is proposed. This endoscope is constituted so that an optimal adapter can be selected from a plurality of kinds of adapters prepared beforehand and replaced corresponding to an observation target and use.
As for an endoscope apparatus equipped with a detachably attached adapter having an LED illumination device, it is also necessary that the connection parts thereof be detachable from a power supply circuit which supplies electrical power to the LED illumination device from a main power supply.
In the case in which the adapter of the endoscope having such a connection part is connected by mistake during an energizing state in which the main power supply is ON, a rapid energizing of the LED illumination device is performed. On the other hand, in the case in which the adapter is disconnected during energizing the LED illumination device, the energizing will be rapidly stopped.
In general, an endoscope apparatus currently used industrially or medically is equipped with a long insertion part which is inserted into a lumen. Moreover, in such an endoscope apparatus, in order to illuminate the target for observation in a lumen and to make observation and image pick-up easy, there is an illumination device at the tip end of the insertion part.
In recent years, an illumination device having a light emitting diode (which is referred as an “LED”, hereinafter) is proposed. Moreover, for example, an endoscope having a plurality of adapters, each of which is detachably attached to the tip end of the insertion part, and is equipped with an LED illumination device and a separate optical system, is proposed. This endoscope is constituted so that an optimal adapter can be selected from a plurality of kinds of adapters prepared beforehand and exchanged corresponding to an observation target and use. Such an endoscope necessitates a connecting constitution for supplying electrical power, between the adapter having an LED illuminating device and the insertion part, and hence a constitution in which a hard electrode is connected to an extensible spring, or a mechanical constitution such as one which is composed of a male connector and a female connector to be connected to each other is used. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication Number H10-328131 discloses the above endoscope.
As an exemplification of the adapter having an LED illuminating device which is exchangeably used, for example, adapters each of which observation direction is different, such as one for direct-vision and one for side-view, or an adapter constituted so as to be able to perform various measurements of the observation environment other than image, such as temperature and pressure and the like, can be exemplified. Moreover, in order to be able to select the optimal adapter corresponding to observation targets and purpose, many kinds of adapters of which angular field of view and depth are different from each other, are prepared.